Monthly Archives: May 2015

You may have noticed across the past few months I have been baking consistently with figs.

Not until last year had I eaten one, let alone baked with this fruit.

Generally when I see fruit that I have never baked with I always like to do my research and make up a few variations of recipes (half the time they don’t make the blog…hello startfruit, dragonfruit, cantaloupe, guava cake experiments (and the list goes on).

It seems fig is one of the special fruits which seems to work so well, additionally with so many flavour pairings.

Thinking in an Italian baking head space (ricotta, espresso etc) I ended up coming up with the flavour pairing of coffee, hazelnut, fig and caramel. Which actually work a treat!

This cheesecake is very much for the sophisticated palate and is super additive!

Ingredients:

250g caramel biscuits (I used Lotus)

100g butter

250g dried figs (12)

2 tbsn orange liquor

330g cream cheese

150g sugar

500g ricotta

2 eggs

90ml espresso coffee

100g hazelnut meal

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 22cm spring form cake tin with baking paper.

Place the biscuits and butter in a food processor and blitz until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Pour the mix into the cake tin and press with fingers over the base of the tin until flat.

Place the tin in the fridge to harden.

Dice up the fig coarsely and place in the saucepan with the liquor and 130g of water on a medium heat.

Place a lid on the pan and let the mix boil.

Once boil remove the lid and stir constantly until the water is absorbed and the figs have started to breakdown.

Place the mix into the food processor and process until the figs are blitzed and resemble a paste.

Spoon the fig mix over the biscuit base and place back in the fridge.

Using electric beaters whisk the cream cheese and ricotta until smooth.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy.

Add the egg mix, hazelmeal and coffee into the cheese mix and whisk until well combine.

Pour the mix unto the cake tin and bake for 50 minutes.

Turn off the oven and leave the door slightly open.

Once the oven is cold place the cake in the fridge to fully set for 2 hours.

Noes:

I used Lotus branded biscuits for the base. If you cannot fine caramel flavored biscuits Arnott’s Nice biscuits would be a good replacement.

I decorated the cake by scattering roasted hazelnuts and icing sugar over the top.

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Notes

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Recently I have had a few friends decide to go sugar free and have been complaining that all the sugar free sweet treats taste like cardboard and cost a fortune.

Seeing me eat chocolate is making them go red (we always want what we cannot have).

So I decided to make the ultimate easy, healthy, sugar free cake that caters for a range of intolerants and has easy to access ingredients (I’m not going on a road trip just to buy coconut nectar when I can go to Coles for a better alternative)!

By tactically using natural sweetener and fruit puree I have been able to keep the fat and sugar content really low while still producing a really rich and moreish cake.

As mentioned I have tried to cater for a range of people so created this cake egg, sugar, butter, chocolate and lactose free.

Ingredients:

Cake:

200g flour

110g cocoa powder

2 tsn baking soda

½ tsn salt

½ tsn ground cinnamon

60g oil

100g apple puree

150ml water

250g agrave nectar

60g banana

1 tbsn orange zest

Frosting:

60g cocoa powder

120ml orange juice

135ml agrave nectar

2 tsn orange zest

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200c degrees and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.

In a bowl sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and stir until combine.

In a food processor place the oil, apple, water, syrup, banana and zest. Blitz until well combine.

Pour the wet mix into a bowl and add the flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Whisk with a hand whisk until well combine.

Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for 50 minutes.

In a bowl place the icing ingredients and with a hand whisk beat until well combine.

Once the cake is cooked leave in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Once the cake has cold spread the icing on the top and decorate with extra orange zest.

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For ages I have been meaning to make a cake that is the simplest to make imaginable. A cake that is fool proof and has only a few steps so my ‘not so savvy’ baker friends can produce a successful creation.

Now I have baked with many liquid ingredients over the years, soda, yoghurt, cordial, alcohol you name it so it’s no surprise that I have gone down the melted ice-cream avenue for this recipe.

However this is not as silly as it sounds. Ice-cream is made of cream/milk, eggs, sugar (sometimes vanilla and salt). Looking at these ingredients these are all core ingredients in a cake batter where all that is missing is the flour….So if I melt my favorite ice-cream and mix it with flour I could produce the most simplest, fool proof, amazing tasting, flavor adaptable (use which ever ice-cream you desire) 5 minute cake.

Hello success!

Ingredients:

Cake:

500g ice-cream (I used Salted Caramel Popcorn flavour)

225g flour

Icing:

330g ice-cream

160g butter

180g icing sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.

Place the ice-cream in a bowl and leave to melt completely.

Add the flour to the melted ice-cream and with a hand whisk stir until well combined.

Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile to make the icing place the ice-cream in a saucepan on the stove on a high heat.

Stir for 5 minutes until the mix becomes a thick caramel, set aside.

Beat the butter and icing sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

Add the cooled caramel and using the electric beaters again beat until well combine and fluffy.

Once the cake is cooked leave in the tin for 5 minutes then on a cooling rack.

Once the cake is cooled cut in half horizontally and top each cake layer with the icing.

Place one layer on top of the other and enjoy.

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Cordial Cake recipe

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